Formation of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate by a soil microbial community during batch and heterocontinuous cultivation

Abstract

Glucose added to soil as an extracellular source of carbon and energy was proved to be deposited into an intracellular polymer poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB). Untreated soil samples contained PHB amounts corresponding to 1.56 –2.64 μg of crotonic acid per 1 g soil. During batch cultivation after addition of 1 % glucose the PHB content increased by 20-fold after 2 d and then decreased owing to the disappearance of glucose from the soil. Repeated additions of glucose did not bring about any significant increase in PHB content as compared with a single addition. In soil supplied continuously with 0.1 or 0.25 % glucose solution, the content of PHB increased, after an initial lag, gradually up to the 10th day. After 1-d cultivation the content of PHB in the batch system increased even in the presence of diammonium hydrogen phosphate. In a heterocontinuous system no PHB accumulation took place in the presence of this source of nitrogen and phosphorus as long as the C:N ratio of theadded substrate was 10: 1.